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Niger’s patient garden

A photo essay

By CURE International

June 14^th, 2018

Niger is consistently ranked as one of the least developed countries in the world, which among other things, means transportation is often unreliable or non-existent. As such, it is a constant concern of ours at CURE Niger that patients who go home will not be able to make it back for their follow-up appointments, leading to complications and the possibility of conditions reoccurring. One of the ways we’ve come to combat this possibility is by offering long-term accommodations to our patients in our patient guesthouse.

The guesthouse can hold approximately 20 patients and caretakers who live there in between their bandage changes and doctors appointments. Food is provided, and their only job is to heal up as fast as possible! With this said, it can still be a rather challenging experience—away from family, friends, and everything familiar, not to mention that the act of healing is, in itself, mindlessly boring. You’re literally just sitting there, giving your body the time it needs to fix itself back up after surgery.

With this knowledge, our spiritual team does an incredible job of engaging both the minds and souls of our guests. Every day there is an activity for the patients, whether it is a Christian TV show or movie in the local language, crafts and games with the children, or the teaching of practical skills such as sewing or soap making for the mothers. Our spiritual staff is always searching for and brainstorming new ways to both entertain and invest in our patients.

It was during one of these brainstorming sessions that our spiritual team arrived at the idea of opening a section of our land up as a patient garden. With the help of a partner organization, CBM, this casual idea soon became a physical reality. Water spigots were placed, fences were installed, and tools were procured. Before long, the patients' caretakers were just as excited as we were, and the garden was opened! Lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and eggplant were all planted and tenderly cared for over the next several months.

None of the residents of our patient guesthouse need the food grown in the garden, but it’s a source of pride for them. It’s not only something to do or a way to add a little variety to the hospital food they’re provided, but it’s also a way for them to provide for their family during a difficult time where they’re almost entirely dependent on charity. American author and poet Wendell Berry sums it up nicely when he says:

One of the most important resources that a garden makes available for use is the gardener's own body. A garden gives the body the dignity of working in its own support. It is a way of rejoining the human race.

While Wendell Berry isn’t widely read in Niger, his observations certainly hold true.

The vast majority of people in this part of the world are sustenance farmers by profession, which means they have no other full-time occupation besides growing enough food to feed their family over the course of a year. If they manage to grow more than is needed, they will sell the excess, but more often than not, they are entirely dependent on what little they can coax out of the hot, Nigerien sand.

So, it's more than an activity to help fill their time. The garden has also become a venue where various families can exchange farming techniques and best practices. With families from not only Niger, but all of West Africa (as we have families here from countries such as Mali, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone), sharing knowledge can be extremely valuable and possibly life-changing as they learn from one another.